Redemption and Revenge
by Redemption by Fire
Summary: Redemption and Revenge come at high prices. Both involve the complete sacrifice of your life to the cause. Anthony Hope knows this, and that this is his destiny as well. At least one of the two. And he knows which one is needed most. Sweeney Todd.
1. Like a light had been turned off

Sweeney Todd and characters belong to their prospective owners, and not me. But my characters are mine. Yeah!

There will be more this is just a start. This story is in three parts, each with many chapters.

It all happed so fast that Anthony wasn't sure he knew anything for certain. As far as he could remember he was getting the coach and wasn't even 2 blocks away from Sweeney Todd's place, before passing the old beggar woman, who had stopped mumbling something about a city on fire, and asked had he seen the beadle and beware, beware or something. He continued onward slower as he tried to make sense of the beggar woman. Like that could happen, he thought.

Next thing he remembered was Johanna, screaming, running behind him, not making any sense, and he allowed her to pull him back to Mr. Todd's place. She pulled him downstairs to Mrs. Lovett's place, instead of upstairs, which was what he had expected.

And there he saw all the blood, he still couldn't even think about it, without the scene dancing in front of his eyes. And Mrs. Lovett's apprentice boy, Toby, he thought his name was, babbling on about grinding and holding up a bloody razor. Then before he could sort anything out in his mind, he and Johanna were taken by the police that had followed them there.

They were thrown in jail and Anthony was separated from Johanna. He begged and pleaded to see Johanna or write her a message, but everyone ignored him. Anthony couldn't figure out how long he had been there before they pulled off to court for being identified as the person who had let out all the people in Fogg's Asylum. He wasn't allowed to speak, as witness after witness charged him with disruption of the peace. And he was whisked away back to jail. And at the end of September, after a whole half a month in jail, he was shackled off the Botany Bay for life.

He was on the ship for a long time, in which he was chained and behind bars in the helm of a massive transport ship. And this was where he was when woke up from a month of fever. And this was all he could remember from the whole ordeal. Anthony felt that he had died and was watching his life go on about as he watching from the bottom of pit. And the fever that was going around on the ship had only made his brain more befuddled and confused. But Anthony was determined to figure out how to get out of this, or at least figure what had happened.

It was here on the ship that he met Carrie. She was in the cell next to him. Her hair was auburn and wavy, and she was short and slender, and had deep brown eyes. She looked to be about 15 or so, pretty young to be being shipped to Botany Bay. Even so she seemed to be still optimistic, and was the only one who would talk to him. Anthony wasn't sure if that was a good thing, since she talked nearly all the time. But as much as she talked she wouldn't give much about her past.

But she had plenty of things to say about London in general. She talked of shops, churches, men, woman, and things she had visited or met. But that was all. She would ask him questions, but Anthony was so confused about what had actually occurred, that he was able to express anything. He was kind to her when she rambled on. He figured that was her cover. If she never stopped talking, no one could ask her anything. He had a shipmate like that once, who covered up his pain by being the life of every party, quite a conversationalist, he was. Once Anthony told him he had was in all of the way he was always confident, he laughed and said it had only been an act, his whole life was. Anthony had told him that he wouldn't have guessed that.

Which was true, Anthony knew he was easy to fool. It had happened before. He couldn't read anyone, Anthony was horrid at that.

Carrie had shut up for once because she had fallen asleep. He tried to go over it all in his head again, but the more he thought about the whole ordeal, the foggier it got. How long had they all been dead there on Mrs. Lovett's floor? Why were they all dead on _Mrs. Lovett's _floor? Why had the boy gone mad? He had seemed sane all the other time he had seen him, thought that hadn't been often. Had he killed all of them? And why? And why didn't Johanna seem surprised? She had merely looked frightened. In fact when she ran into him, she had frightened him, and he wasn't sure why. Perhaps it was the fear, sadness, shock, or just the non-interpretable look in her eyes. Like a light had been turned off.

Like Carrie. Like almost all the people on this ship. Anthony wondered if he looked the same.


	2. Very stupid,very stupid indeed

"Anthony, wake up, wake up."

Anthony opened his eyes. He was still on the ship. Not that he was surprised by now; it had happened every morning for the past month or two, or three. They should be almost there by now.

But usually Carrie didn't yell at him to wake up. He sat up and looked at her. Her usual overly perky smile was missing, and she seemed almost normal except that she had been crying and looked as though she hadn't slept that night.

"Yes?" He responded cautiously.

She just stared at him. Anthony wasn't sure what was going on.

"Anthony?" She looked lost. Then she burst into tears. Anthony looked in awe. He had no idea what was going on.

"L...look Carrie, what is the matter?"

She stopped sobbing. "I… it's my entire fault."

"What is?" he responded trying to be patient. Which was something he was usually good at, but somehow it was not there for him, at that moment.

She looked up and walked to the connecting bars of their cells. Her tears were still coming. "I…I should have know better, I should have seen, I should have died with her. I helped her…."

Anthony was confused, but allowed her to go on.

"I helped her….damn it I helped her….I helped her kill….and helped her get away with it….how stupid could I have been….how stupid…."

Her façade had cracked. And now it had shattered. She began bawling again, and many of the other prisoners began to swear at her, and yell for her to shut up. This only made it worse.

The guards had to come and tell her to shut up or else, before she at least stopped bawling. After they left and most people when back to sleep, or back into their minds, she approached Anthony again.

"Anthony? Am I evil? For helping?" she whispered quietly.

Anthony wasn't sure he was qualified to answer that with what little knowledge he had. But he tried anyway.

"Not if you had no idea what you were doing."

It was true, Anthony thought, or at least he hoped it was true. Or else he was sure that he would be in even bigger trouble. He had helped in someway bring about the chaos in the bake house, however that happened, he had played some role. And Anthony liked to think, that because of his naivety, that he wasn't evil for helping along such madness, and death.

Carrie smiled slightly. She went back to her mat and lay down.

And Anthony lay down too. He thought again about what he could remember of that red blur of a night. His thoughts turned to Toby, razor held high, laughing madly, and mumbled things. A bit like Carrie and a bit younger too. Then slowly a piece of the puzzle slid into place in his mind.

Toby didn't kill all those people. No, just one. Just Sweeney Todd. Because he had killed the rest of those people and he was scared of him, and hated himself for not having seen it coming.

Just like Anthony couldn't help but feel in his darker thoughts aboard this ship. Carrie's cry echoed in his head. "How stupid could I have been… how stupid?"

And Anthony couldn't help but answer it since it was one of his own questions as well. "Very stupid, very stupid indeed."


	3. At least not my friends

Please review people. I need some input, please!

It was getting near the end of the journey, Anthony could tell. The sailors had been getting restless, for weeks now, and they were starting to get excited. Anthony knew the feeling. As much as he loved the sea, it was just as exciting if not more, to be back on solid ground.

Carrie had gone back to her peppy, overly cheery ways, as though whatever had happened that one morning when she woke him up crying never occurred. Anthony would have rather had the crying Carrie, though; it was more realistic and she had forced him for that one second to think of someone besides himself first.

Not that Anthony was selfish or anything. Just near blind, like the carriage horses, with their blinkers on. Which was why he reasoned; that he hadn't seen the mess on Fleet Street coming. He was too busy looking to the future to see the present.

His thought drifted to Johanna, yet again. But this it was to wonder what had happened to her. Anthony didn't like to think about it, because he was sure it wasn't good. He had asked the priest on board once what the punishment for most murders was. The priest had looked at him oddly, surprised he was asking him. Then he responded that if a person was caught and the person affected by the murder brought them to trial, that they would most probably be hung.

His only Hope… he laughed to himself at the irony….was that she had not been able to be testified against, or that no one came to put her on trial. After all Jonas Fogg was an old eccentric with no children. But the whole thing wasn't in her favor. And even if she got out of jail, where would she go?

Anthony stopped thinking about it before he started mental tormenting himself again. It wasn't his fault. It wasn't, wasn't it?

"An eye for an eye...makes…" Carrie was babbling, and he didn't hear the rest of what she said.

"What was that?"

"What my mom, used to say, when she was alive anyway."

"No, what did you say?" Anthony asked slightly frustrated.

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." Carrie repeated emotionless and rote like.

Anthony froze. Without even realizing it another piece of the puzzle was slipping into place in his mind.

"Whatever do you suppose that means?" Carrie asked clearly unaware of the significance of her previous statement on Anthony's thoughts.

"Revenge…." He whispered to no one in particular, trailing off into nowhere.

Carrie looked at him funny. But Anthony didn't even seem to notice. He was far away. Revenge. That explained all the seemingly random killings. Mr. Todd wouldn't speak about his past at all to Anthony on the ship. Anthony had respected that. Maybe he should have pried.

He thought back to moment on the ship, with Mr. Todd. It was stormy and no one was on deck. He went to talk to the guy they had pulled out of the water a few days before. He had refused to speak much to anyone, and Anthony hoped he could remedy that.

He had ignored Anthony when he had asked questions about him or his past. Anthony frustrated with him and exclaimed exasperated, "I wish I knew what you had been through. Then I could understand you better, sir."

Mr. Todd had turned to him, and replied, surprising Anthony. "The only way to understand someone is to have been through something similar to what they have been through. And what I have been through I wouldn't wish on anyone." Here he had trailed off, and then grinned rather oddly. "At least not my friends…."

Anthony sighed deeply.

I thought you were my friend, Mr. Todd. I thought you were my friend.


End file.
